I am SO HATING myself at this moment....

I got off work at 1600 hours, and drove out to a private property where I took my doe last Thursday night. I got into my stand at 1700 hours, and settled in for the last good 1 1/2 hours of shooting light.

I didn' t see any deer for that whole 1 1/2 hours. Things didn' t seem right for hunting tonight. Maybe it just was preoccupation with work on my mind; the chainsaw that just started up in the distance; and the stupid dog across a treeline that was barking it' s head off at infrequent times.

It was beginning to get quite dark at the edge of the woodline where I had put my ladder stand this last Sunday. The field that I was overlooking from the woodline was clear of deer, and nothing was coming up behind me either. Even the squirrels had taken off for the night. Dejectedly, I decided to disengage from my hunting activities.

So I stood up and turned around. I spun my release on the outside of my wrist so I could climb back down 15 feet without breaking my neck. I pulled my arrow off of the bowline and carefully replaced it back into the mounted quiver. I set my bow down on the seat in front of me, and then I unhooked my safety strap from the tree.

As I was taking off my face mesh and stuffing it into my hip pocket, I heard a crunch below me. I immediately froze and looked down towards my left and couldn' t believe......

....that a HUGE buck was cruising past me, totally unaware that he was going to live for at least another night.

I could' ve jumped off of the stand onto his back, it was such a close encounter. His friggin horns were so wide, I thought of a Texas steer for a fleeting moment. This buck was just HUGE. I coudn' t see all of his tines; it was too dark but he had a rack full of them....

I couldn' t do ANYTHING but watch him glide by. I was lambasting myself mentally by crying " YOU IDIOT, why didn' t you wait?" to myself, over and over . I couldn' t stop him, because I left my grunter back in the truck (that won' t happen again ), and he moved too briskly for me to get an arrow from the quiver; nock it and get the damn release spun back around on my wrist so I could get a shot behind his magnificant shoulder.

I WILL be out there tomorrow night, I hope that this beauty has made this route past my stand a regular evening occurance.

I just can' t belive that I was minutes away from scoring another nice deer, in such a short period of time. My stand must be located at " Maryland deer crossing" , USA....

Kindest Regards,

-Will in Maryland